


From Afar

by EmiAliceinWonderland



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bickering, Bittersweet, Epilogue, Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gangsey, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Missing Scene, Multi, No Call Down the Hawk Spoilers, Outside POV on Pynch, Post-The Raven King, Romance, SWEET BOYS, The Raven King Spoilers, just blue and her raven boys, pynch - Freeform, sarchengsey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-13 01:14:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21485914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmiAliceinWonderland/pseuds/EmiAliceinWonderland
Summary: Blue - observant, intuitive Blue Sargent - notices almost immediately that something has changed between Ronan and Adam.---Adam sighs and tips his forehead towards Ronan for just a moment, their heads touching, and then he ducks his head down again and Blue can’t quite see but she swears it looks like he just kissed Ronan’s cheek, or his forehead … his nose? A soft peck on the mouth? She looks away quickly, wondering if the movement just looked more intimate from where she was.---Post-TRK feels. Part one of three little "Pynch from the outside" scenes because I need to know how Blue found out about them.(Titles are lyrics from Vance Joy's song "From Afar")
Relationships: Henry Cheng & Richard Gansey III & Ronan Lynch & Adam Parrish & Blue Sargent, Henry Cheng/Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent, Richard Gansey III & Ronan Lynch, Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Comments: 55
Kudos: 597





	1. Two Falling Sparks

**Author's Note:**

> I actually can't BELIEVE it's been over a year since I posted on here, that's actually crazy and terrifying? Anyway I had a sudden burst of Pynchspiration and whipped this up. I was going to make it into one big one-shot but I thought it was getting a bit long and this seemed like a natural ending to a chapter. 
> 
> Honestly it got a LOT heavier than I meant it to but the next parts will be more fluff I hope! I also just wanted to post this now instead of waiting to write more because I haven't posted here in so long I'm nervous and excited! Thanks so much for reading <3
> 
> P.s. The background Sarchengsey content in this is dedicated wholly to @bblamentation ^^

The first time Blue notices something is different about Ronan and Adam is just a few hours after the events that occured on the ley line. They are all (minus Noah, a tangible hole of a person left behind that physically _hurts_ Blue to think about right now) in the open plan room of Monmouth Manufacturing. They’ve been talking for hours, checking in with each other, trying to wrap their heads around what had just happened, breathing and decompressing and crying and hugging and trying to bring their heart rates down from the adrenaline that had consumed them that afternoon.

Henry is sitting on Gansey’s big double bed, his back against the headboard, his long legs stretched out across the mattress, idly playing with Robobee on the tip of a slender finger, his shoulder pressed up against Gansey’s who is sitting next to him. Blue is restless and has changed positions about a hundred times in the last few hours. Rotating around the room from the crook of Gansey’s shoulder to the bottom of the bed, to the sofa, to standing and pacing, and back again.

Ronan has been uncharaterisally still and quiet, staying in the same spot in the room, on the floor in front of the sofa, his back against it and his usual boundless energy seemingly used up. Adam hasn’t moved from his side, and Blue isn’t surprised. She can tell from the tense set of Adam’s shoulders and the concerned glances he keeps giving Ronan that he’s feeling terribly guilty about the blossoming bruises forming on Ronan’s neck.

She sighs and shifts again from her current spot on the bed, “I need a yoghurt,” she says decisevely, like she’s finally figured out what will fix all their shock and exhaustion.

You can never go wrong with a yoghurt.

Gansey casts her a quick look and his mouth twisting up in a small, fond smile makes Blue’s heart flutter.

She gets up, clamboring over Henry’s legs to get to the kitchen area.

“Anyone want anything?” she asks.

“We should order pizza,” Henry says. “I need a pizza”.

Gansey smiles again, seemingly dealing with the earlier events quite well to Blue’s relief, and shuffles closer to Henry to look over his shoulder as he gets his phone out to look at pizza options. It’s so domestic, so soft, so quiet, so safe and sweet that Blue physically feels a knot of tension dissolve in her chest.

Rummaging through the fridge she glances over to Adam and Ronan and involuntarily raises an eyebrow slightly as she sees Adam shuffle impossibly closer to Ronan, reaching out a hand and gently, so gently, tipping his chin up with a finger, ducking his head to try to get Ronan to meet his eyes. Ronan eventually does and Blue can’t see the expression on his face from here, only the back of his head, but she can see Adam’s. His expression is impossibly tender, his eyebrows creasing in concern as he whispers something to Ronan.

Gansey and Henry are preoccupied, chatting amongst each other and Blue feels slightly voyeuristic watching Ronan and Adam interacting in their own small, private bubble, seemingly unaware of antyhing else around them, eyes only for each other. Adam whispers something to Ronan, his eyes full of care and concern and his hand brushing so delicately across Ronan’s neck, his face crumpling in pain as he surveys the damage his own hands had done just hours earlier.

Ronan’s shoulder raises up in a sad little shrug and he shakes his head. Adam sighs and tips his forehead towards Ronan for just a moment, their heads touching, and then he ducks his head down again and Blue can’t quite see but she swears it looks like he just kissed Ronan’s cheek, or his forehead … his nose? A soft peck on the mouth? She looks away quickly, wondering if the movement just looked more intimate from where she was.

She blushes slightly, turning to grab a spoon from one of the kitchen drawers, smiling to herself at the fact that Gansey’s fridge was convientitely stocked with her favourite flavour yoguhrt. 

It was the little things.

\---

Later, after pizza has been ordered and delivered and consumed, they gather up blankets and pillows from all the boy’s bedrooms and pile them up in the front room come Gansey’s bedroom, not bearing to be apart from each other so soon after the events of the day. Gansey insists he’ll sleep on the floor but realises the mistake he’s made in even suggesting such a thing when he’s met by unabashed protests from everyone in the room.

Blue strongly agrees, he’s just _died_ and come back to life, he’s _not_ sleeping on the floor.

“We’re fine on the couch,'' Adam says, tossing a pillow onto the sofa and then arranging a blanket.

“And I’m fine here,” Henry says around a yawn, having migrated down the the end of Gansey’s bed, splayed out and relaxed already. When Gansey reluctantly sits down at the head of bed after being strongly discouraged from tkaing the floor, Henry wiggles his toes and pokes at Gansey’s thigh with his foot.

“You okay with me staying?” Henry asks quietly, only a faint crease of his eyebrows betraying a hint of uncertainty.

Gansey lets out an exhausted little laugh, “Of course,” he squeezes the other's foot with slightly shaking fingers, “please stay." 

He turns to Blue, "Jane?”

“Mmh?” Blue replies, and Gansey says nothing else but opens his arms and nods his head slightly, his eyes wide and young and gently pleading, his mouth a soft, sad smile when she walks towards him.

“_You wanna sleep here_?” he whispers in the side of her neck as he hugs her close, and all Blue can do is nod, closing her eyes against him and breathing in deeply. _He’s alive, he’s okay, he’s real, he’s safe. He’s here._

Blue settles next to him on the bed, head on his shoulder and when she stretches her legs right out on top of the mattress they’re still too short to reach Henry’s at the other end. He catches her trying to poke him with her own toes and flashes her a sunny smile that warms her chest. She glances over to the couch and suddenly remembers that Adam had so casually said “_we_”. “_We’ll be fine on the couch_”. Ronan and Adam. When had they become a we? When had they _not_ been a we?

Blue has the dawning realistation that somehow without her noticing or thinking about it, the two boys had become an inseperable pair. It was always “I_’m waiting for Lynch and Parrish”, “Where are Ronan and Adam?”, “Me and Parrish,” “Lynch and I,” “We_”.

_We, we, we; s_he hadn’t even been aware of it happening and all this time it had been right in front of her eyes.

Blue finds herself watching them again, her whole world view shifting every so slightly, realigning just a few degrees to adjust to the notion of her new suspicions. Ronan looks surprisingly small on the big couch opposite Gansey’s bed. He’s been so quiet. The most out of all of them, and the hunched boy sitting across from her looks so tired and sad in the dim light of the evening that she suddnely has the insescrible urge to get up and hug him.

She doesn’t know how he’d react to that. Maybe he’d swear and shove her away or maybe he’d sit still and let her hold him.

She doesn’t know which reaction would be worse.

She’s debating actually biting the bullet and going over to him when Adam comes back from where he’d been bustling around in the kitchen, a glass of water in his hands. He sits down next to Lynch and gently hands it to him and to Blue’s complete shock that simple act provokes the most unexpected reaction out of Ronan.

The toughest of all of them, the most hardended and mean, the angry, harsh, cold Ronan Lynch bursts into tears.

Over a glass of water.

“Hey, hey, hey, Ronan, _Ronan_”, Gansey says immediately, voice urgent and hushed as he instantly jumps up from the bed to rush over to his best friend. Blue isn’t sure if she should join him, her body itches to, to do anything she can to comfort and help but she doesn’t want to crowd him or intrude. Henry seemingly has the same reaction and looks over to her with a questioning look in his eyes.

Blue answers back with her own eyes and gives a tiny, almost imperceptable shake of her head. Maybe it’s best if they pretend to not be there for now.

“It’s alright, you can cry,” she hears Gansey say softly. He’s crouched down in front of the couch and has his hands on Ronan’s shaking thighs. Adam has his arm around Ronan’s shoulders, one palm rubbing wide circles across the other’s back and the other hand reaching out to grab Ronan’s hand and squeeze it tight in his lap.

“Oh, Ronan,” he sighs, voice full of heartbreak and empathy and emotion, “I’m sorry,” he says and it cracks.

Blue knows that he doesn’t mean for the handprints on Ronan’s neck. His mother has died. Today. Blue remembers with a start and realises in a wave of shared pain that the broken boy across from him is now an orphan. Adam and Gansey are as good as his family and he’d almost lost them both too today.

With a wave of pain like a punch to the gut she wonders how he hadn’t let his sobs out so much sooner.

Henry shifts uncomfortably and frowns in worry at her. She shakes her head slightly and averts her eyes, unable to do anything else but listen as Gansey and Adam talk in hushed tones to Ronan as he falls apart and then lets himself be put back together by them.

\---

When Gansey finally comes back to his bed, Ronan’s sobs having long since quietened, Henry pretending to be absorbed in his phone and Blue pretending to be fascinated with a shadow on the cieling, Blue chances a glance over and her breath catches in her throat.

Ronan is a cautiously held precious item in Adam’s arm, “_fragile, take care_” written all over him, Adam’s hands cradling the back of his shorn head as he rocks them slowly back and forth on the couch, his eyes closed and his mouth moving just slightly, like he’s murmering inaudible things to Ronan and physically holding him togther.

“_Is he okay?_” Blue whispers to Gansey, and she knows it’s a stupid question but she can’t help but ask it even so. To her surprise though, Gansey gives a small nod.

“Adam’s got him,” he says quietly and the way he says it belies a much greater meaning hidden under the surface, like he’s relieved and certain and so sure in those three words. Like Ronan Lynch is all jagged pieces and broken edges and Gansey knows Adam would cut himself a million times on the sharp parts to hold him together until the cracks heal, and watching the way Adam is with Ronan right now Blue can’t help but feel like she’s only a tiny fraction away from understanding.

She furrows her eyebrows and looks at Gansey. “_Are they…_?” she whispers, her question fading out into nothing, unspoken but lingering between them clear as day. Gansey purses his lips and doesn’t meet her eyes, refuses to answer and instead says “_let’s go to sleep_” in a whisper of his own, and for now that is answer enough for Blue.


	2. That's Not The Way That Friends Behave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue & Ronan are literal children and Gansey & Adam are their parents but also they're all in love? That's all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooo everybody, thank you so so much for the lovely comments on the last chapter, kudos and comments and bookmarks truly mean the world to me! I'm sorry this chapter has taken a little while to get done but here it is. It's pretty silly but Ronan and Blue started bickering without my consent and I had to just go with it. 
> 
> Happy Almost Christmas! <3
> 
> Edit: I've just gone through previous chapter comments and I'm a bit worried like omg this chapter isn't tender or angsty at all its just sTUPID hahaha so I'm very sorry if you read the first chapter and were hoping for more of the same ^^;;;

Nino's is packed full and bustling, a Saturday afternoon perhaps wasn't the best time for the gang to come here but they'd wanted the easy familiarity of it - plus, it did do the best sundaes. 

Gansey sits across from Blue, their eyes meeting every now and then. Every time Blue looks over to him he’s staring at her and quickly blushes, turning his head away. It makes her smile, how shy he is with this new thing between them. Henry is out with his mom and the lack of his presence as well as Noah’s makes their table feel extra small. Less like a whole group and more like a double date. 

Was this a double date? Her and Gansey were certainly dating now, after so long in an ambiguous zone of can-we- can’t-we they had wasted no time in officially naming each other their boyfriend and girlfriend. But she still doesn't know what the strange new energy between Ronan and Adam can be classed as - or if there even _is_ anything between them at all - maybe it's her imagination, her own feelings about her relationship with Gansey making her into some kind of a hopeless romantic that sees chemistry when there is simply friendship. 

“_Ow_!” Blue is broken out of her musings by the toe of a boot hitting her shin under the table. “What the fuck?” 

She looks up, first at Gansey who’s eyes are wide and she knows immediately it wasn’t him because he’d be apologising a thousand times over - plus, boat shoes probably wouldn’t hurt that much. Next to Gansey, on the opposite side of the small table, is Ronan Lynch, and from the way hes scowling at her, it's clear he is the culprit. 

“Are you trying to play footsie with me, Lynch?” she asks, a smirk growing on her face; it hadn’t hurt really and she’d said ow more in shock than anything. 

“No!” Ronan immediately responds, the scowl on his face growing even deeper. Gansey is looking between the two of them with wide eyes, but Adam is stifling a laugh in his hand, his head bowed and long-lashed eyes sneaking a look at Ronan opposite him. 

“What’re you laughing at, Parrish?” Ronan grumbles in response, like Adam’s look had been a question and there was nothing more natural than responding. 

"Nothin'," he shrugs , his drawl coming out as he stifles a laugh by shoving a slice of pizza in his mouth. Ronan rolls his eyes, crosses his arms and leans back in his seat with a huff, and it's the defensive posture that makes Blue’s mind twig to what's just happened. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get in the way of your flirtation, boys” she says coyly with a raised eyebrow, trying not to giggle as she glances over to Gansey. 

“I was stretching. My. fucking. Legs,” Ronan mumbles in reply, scowling at Blue, but his pale cheeks give away his blush almost immediatly. 

“Well, you “stretched” them in the fuckin wrong place,” Blue retorts. She's not proud of how Ronan brings out her angry, crass side but it's like she can’t help herself from turing into a teenage boy around him. 

Gansey raises his eyebrows at her and she shrugs in defiance as if to say “he’s the one who started the swearing, don’t blame me.” Adam looks over to Gansey and both of them share an exasperatd look. Shaking his head slightly, Gansey puts a hand over Ronan’s clenched fist on the table next to him and Blue’s opposite.

“Now,” he says “Let’s not fight, children.” 

Blue rolls her eyes so hard they almost fall into the back of her head, and when she’s done doing that she looks over to see Ronan doing the same. “I’m sure Ronan didn’t mean to kick you, Jane, but-” 

“Oh. My god, Dick. Please” Ronan groans, though he’s clearly struggling not to laugh now, “you’re not _actually_ our dad.” He narrows his eyes at Blue, “At least not mine. Sargent probably calls you daddy.”

“_Ronan!_” Adam squawks out at the exact moment that Blue stretches out her own legs under the table and forcefully gives Ronan’s shin a big kick with her docs. 

“Ow, fuck you!” Ronan shouts.

"No, fuck  _ you _ ,” Blue retaliates.

“_Oh my god,_” Gansey and Adam respond.

\---

They’re all piled into the Camaro, Gansey driving, Blue in the passenger seat beside him and Ronan and Adam in the back. 

Gansey had refused to let Ronan and Blue sit beside each other and usually Ronan would claim the front seat for himself, but the promise of Adam being in the back with him and a reassuring hand on his shoulder from Parrish had assuaged any complaints for the time being. 

“Thats the first time I've ever got kicked out of somewhere you know,” Gansey says conversationally, like its an interesting fact that he’s a little bit proud of. 

Blue looks over at him, an eyebrow raised, “We weren’t _kicked _out. Only a few people were staring.” 

They hadn’t really been kicked out of Nino's. After all it wasn’t a wine and dine restaurant with an atmosphere to uphold, and a pizza joint in Henrietta had certainly seen worse than two teenagers yelling at each other before. But rather than staying for dessert and risking a full blown public argument, they had decided to go back to the Sargent's house instead where there were always freshly baked goods, cakes and cookies waiting in the kitchen. 

Blue smirks to herself as she glances into the rear view mirror at Adam and Ronan. Ronan’s legs are thrown over Adam’s lap in a position he has adopted many times before. No matter how much Gansey implores him to wear a seatbelt there is no telling Lynch what to do, and besides, Blue does concede that Gansey is a careful enough driver and the Camaro slow enough that it's unlikely they’d ever need seatbelts anyway. 

Although it's a common place to find Ronan Lynch in - his long limbs draped over Adam Parrish like a cat that reserves its physical affection for one person - Blue catches the way that Adam is responding to the casual action this time. His hands are holding Ronan’s bare ankles, the ripped hems of his black jeans riding up slightly to reveal pale white and Adam’s tan thumb is a stark contrast against it where he brushes it back and forth across Ronan’s skin.

It's so small it would be hardly noticeable if you weren’t looking for it, if you didn't know Ronan and Adam intimately, if you hadn’t seen them interact a million times before and if you didn’t know the tiny ways that Adam Parrish shows affection.

\---

When they arrive at 300 Fox Way, Blue tries not to let her eyes drift too obviously across to the boys, looking for any small hint of touches or glances that will confirm or deny her current hypothesis. When she sees Adam extend a hand out towards Lynch to tug him out of the Camaro and his hand lingers for a few moments too many she smirks to herself.

But then Gansey is brushing her own hand with _his_ fingertips and _oh, _ suddenly she couldn't care less about anyone else's romantic inclinations but her own. 

\---

“Oh no …” Orla says, her face dramatic and intense all of a sudden as she draws out the vowels in her ‘no’. 

“What?” Blue asks immediatly, eyebrows furrowed as she looks over to Orla in confusion.

“Oh _no,_” Orla says again, before giving the biggest, most dramatic sigh she can muster.

"_What?_” Blue snaps again, too used to her cousin's theatrics to really be concerned but curious as to what she's lamenting over all the same.

"My chances. They're gone." 

Blue raises her eyebrows intensely and tries to convey "_????_" in non verbal communication.

"My chances with Ronan Lynch,", Orla replies, like it should be obvious.

Blue splutters in shock. "You... oh my god, are you literally just _now_ figuring out he's gay?"

"Mm hm. Tragic. We would've been an extremely hot couple."

"Oh my god. Orla. What took you so long to realise he would literally _never_ be interested in you?" Blue laughs, unable to help herself. "I thought you were psychic"

"I am. I'm just clearly more attuned to seeing romance than sexuality" she muses. 

"I still have no idea what you're talking about." 

"Duh," Orla says, turning to face Blue, arms crossed across her chest allow a casual hand to be flung out to gesture to where Ronan and Adam are sitting, talking to Calla whilst Gansey browses books on the shelf in the living room. "They're in l_ove_."


	3. Look the Other Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ronan lets out a shuddering breath, his eyes wide and sparkling like he’s being told a fairytale secret, like he can’t quite believe someone on the outside looking in is confirming his dreams as reality. He nods once, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he swallows hard but doesn’t say anything. He just gives Blue a small smile, the most genuine she’s ever seen from Ronan Lynch and she smiles back in return, her heart full and fluttering as she snuggles back down into her blanket on the couch.
> 
> \---
> 
> Part three of three of Pynch from the outside <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thank you so so much once again for all the lovely comments on this fic and the kudos. It motivates me so much to want to write when I know people are looking forward to reading - there's honestly no bigger honour than that :) I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and hope you enjoy this chapter and the conclusion to this fic. 
> 
> I have a few more ideas and conversations that I didn't include here so I may write them separately at some point in the future. Also if you have any prompts or pynch ideas you'd like me to try to write feel free to comment them!
> 
> Enjoy! :) <3
> 
> P.s. forgot to add that I haven't read Call Down The Hawk so I hope my characterisation of Opal isn't too off!

“Have you noticied anything … different about Lynch and Parrish lately?”, Blue asks conversationally, her tone as light and unassuming as she can make it.

As '_I definitely haven’t been driving myself crazy trying to figure out these boys for the past three weeks'_ as possible.

“_Mm!”_ Henry says with wide eyes and raised eyebrows over the top of the cheeseburger that he’s just taken a big bite out of.

“Huh?” Gansey mumbles earnestly, wiping his mouth with a napkin like it’s the most time-consuming job in the world.

Blue narrows her eyes at Gansey across the table before turning to Henry, who is also sitting opposite to her. 

“Have you?” she asks again.

“Duh,” he says, finally swallowing his mouthful.

Blue resists the urge to roll her eyes. Why is everything seemingly so _obvious_ to everyone except her?

“Can everyone _stop_ saying '_duh'_ to me. _Please_.”

Henry bites his lip like he’s trying not to let out a laugh - he always finds it funny when she’s grumpy, but he knows better by now than to let her know that.

“Gansey. Enlighten me. Please.” She huffs, “has everyone but me been given a memo about this?” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jane,” Gansey replies, and god, he’s so good at seeming completely innocent when he wants to, his ability to charm with his patent smile and stupid, handsome face still managing to infuriate Blue to this day. 

"I have no idea how you managed to make me fall in love with you”.

“He didn’t, it was fate,” Henry quips.

“_ Or _you for that matter.” Blue retorts back to him, her mouth curving up into a bemused smile.

She can’t help but do anything other than smile around her boys. They are _ infuriating_, yes, but they get away with it every time. 

“For real though”, Henry says around another mouthful of his burger, “I might be wrong but I thought it was kind of obvious, no? They’ve been dating for like … a year now, right? I just think lately they seem to be more serious about it. After Cabeswater.” 

Gansey turns to Henry, brow furrowed and expression confused.

“They’ve been dating for a year? What are you talking about?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m pretty sure a year ago Adam was meant to be dating _me_?” Blue adds, half a statement, half a question in her tone.

“Oh. Huh,” Henry says, almost to himself as he visibly searches back in his memory for recollections of Lynch and Parrish during the past year.

“I guess I didn’t know them that well or see them around that often, but I mean … I just assumed they were … you know, acting on their flirtations.”

Blue’s mouth drops open a little, “But, but, wait, they’ve only just started flirting in the past couple of weeks, haven’t they?”

Henry raises an eyebrow.

“Okay, maybe months to be fair, but _still_!”

“Wow,” Henry says, sitting back in his chair, “I didn’t realise this was a _thing._ I thought you guys,” he waves a hand vaguely to suggest The Gangsey, “knew everything about each other.”

"Well so did I until recently,” Blue responds, shooting a glance at Gansey who looks away sheepishly, “but apparantly everyone but me knew about this … whatever _this_ is. I didn’t even know Adam liked guys, let alone _Lynch_.”

“To be fair I don’t know if he knew himself until recently,” Gansey concedes. 

Henry flashes him a look of surprise.

“Really? He always stoked my bi-dar.”

Blue cannot resist the urge to roll her eyes this time.

“_Bi-dar,_” she says flatly, an eyebrow arched in yet more exasperated bemusement. 

“Did Ronan?” Gansey asks curiously.

“Ha!” Henry exclaims, “not my bi-dar, no, but my _hopelessly-pining-over-his-male -friends _radar, sure.” 

“_Friends?_ Plural? Not just Adam?”

“Oh, man, before Parrish he was hopeless for Gansey, I mean who wasn’t?” Henry states like its the most obvious thing in the world.

“Who _isn’t_, I should say, sorry Dick,” He gives Gansey a conciliatory pat on the shoulder and Gansey blushes almost as red as the polo shirt he’s wearing. 

“I don’t think- I mean. He’s my best friend,” he stutters by way of an explanation.

“Oh for sure,” Henry nods, “But I wouldn’t be surprised if you were also unwittingly his gay awakening. You're very handsome and you have really great hair, not to mention a charming personality.”

Gansey splutters a little and manages to get out, “I-- w-well, I…”

“Anyway, after years of observing you, Gansey-man, it became clear that Lynch’s love for you and the way he was with Parrish were two different things.” 

Blue leans in a little closer to Henry, her elbows on the table between them. Why hadn’t she thought to ask Henry about this before?

Henry Cheng who knew everything about everybody at Aglionby, who could charm anyone into being his friend, who was surprisingly thoughtful and intelligent and observant when you really got to know him. Of course he’d have noticed any changes in their group dynamic looking in from the outside before any of them even realised it from the inside. 

“But how could you tell? I’ve never seen them be touchy or flirty before the past few weeks,” Blue muses. 

Henry gives her a wry look. “Nah, you just have to know what you’re looking for. Lynch treats Parrish like a precious object, like he’s the most important person in the world. I don’t mean he’s _delicate_ with him but the way he looks at him, the way he looks _for_ him if he doesn’t turn up at school,” he finishes with a shrug. “I don’t know, it just seemed different”.

“Huh,” Blue says.

“Oh,” Gansey murmers.

They look across at each other and Henry lets out a small laugh, “I’m not surprised you two didn’t notice. It took you way too long to even realise you were in love with each other, let alone seeing it in other people.”

\---

They’re sitting all together in the living room of The Barns when Blue decides that she’s going to just confront the boys and _ask_ them about their relationship. At first she’d thought maybe they’d announce it to the group, or perhaps just casually drop in a hint during a conversation that would prompt questions to be asked and answered. But so far? Nothing. 

“You seem to know your way around here pretty well, Adam,” Blue says from the sofa where she is sitting between Gansey and the arm of the couch, Henry on his other side, all far too comfortable and cozy to get up and help Lynch and Parrish with the snacks they’re currently preparing for their group movie marathon.

Adam is humming in the open plan kitchen as he looks across to her and raises an eyebrow, responding nothing more than “Mmhmm,” as he opens a cupboard and retrieves glasses for drinks seemingly without having to even think about where they would be.

“He does!” A high-pitched voice pipes up from near Blue’s feet where Opal has appeared, sticks in her hair and her eyes bright and happy. “I love you being here all the time, Adam!” 

“_All the time_, huh?” Blue replies to Opal, glancing over at Adam who looks down to hide his blush. 

“_Alllll_ the time,” Opal drawls out, her voice a sweet imitation of Adam’s accent. “He makes Kerah very happy,” she adds after a moment, her voice quieter and her little eyebrows knitted closer together as she looks up at Blue and nods very sincerly. “That’s very important.”

Blue feels her heart expand about five times in size and the cooing she hears from Henry and the soft, sweet smile on Gansey’s face as they listen in to the conversation make her think she’s not the only one.  
  
“That is very important,” Blue agrees, matching Opals serious tone as she leans forward from the couch to take Opal's little hands in her own. “Are they super gross sometimes?” she stage whispers, like its a secret just for her and the dream child even though she knows the others can hear. 

Opal squirms and giggles, biting her lip as she says, “I don’t understand kissing, it looks gross,” whispering herself like she really thinks it's a secret. 

Blue wrinkles her nose in feigned disgust, “Me neither,” she says, throwing Gansey a pointed look and trying not to laugh, “it’s not worth the stress really, is it?”

Opal agrees, nodding her head very seriously before jumping slightly and turning around when she hears Ronan enter the room. 

“Hey,” he says across the room, “what’re you doing with my brat, Maggot?” 

Blue rolls her eyes but can’t hide her amused smile. “She’s just telling me how gross kissing is,” she says casually. 

Ronan narrows his eyes and behind him Adam turns around, his face still red, as he pretends to busy himself with something in the kitchen. 

“How do you know about kissing?” he asks Opal, “you’re a child.”

Opal pouts like shes offended to be called a child. Which she is. “I saw you smushing your face with Adam and I asked Calla what it was.” 

Opal announces this with such a matter-of-fact delivery that for a moment everyone in the room is quiet. Until suddenly Blue can’t stop a loud laugh rising out of her chest, and then Henry is joining her and Gansey too, and Ronan’s mouth is twitching as he deperately tries to maintain composure and his act of annoyance at Opal. 

But then Adam turns around again and starts giggling under his breath until he looks at Ronan and their gazes catch and they both burst out into hysterics until suddenly everyone in the room is laughing and Blue doesn't want them to ever have to stop.

\---

Later that night, after watching one to many movies and eating far too many bowls of chips, they are relaxed and heavy and warm in the lynch’s living room. Blankets are strewn around them and Ronan had thrown some wood into the fireplace to start a small, cosy, crackling blaze that makes Blue feel cosy and safe and mellow inside. 

Henry and Gansey are chatting quietly, looking at something on Gansey’s phone, the way that their faces light up as they talk makes Blue’s heart skip a beat and she smiles quietly to herself, happy her boys are happy. 

She looks over at Ronan on the other couch and her soft smile grows on her face without her permission at the scene she sees. Adam, always exhausted Adam Parrish, is snoring softly, curled up, messy hair and mouth slightly open.

His head is resting against Ronan’s shoulder, his eyelashes fluttering a little in his sleep, like he’s dreaming. He snuffles and rubs his cheek against Ronan’s arm for a second before turning slightly into a more comfortable position and letting out a sigh and then a small snore. 

It’s so cute that Blue thinks her heart might melt.

Ronan, by the expression on his face, is clearly having the same thoughts. 

“I’m really happy for you two,” Blue says, her voice so quiet its almost a whisper, but Ronan is close enough to hear her. He glances up at her over the top of Adam’s dusty brown hair, his eyes showing a flicker of surprise before he tempers his expression. 

“Its not weird?” He asks after a moment, his own voice soft and small, and he can’t hold her gaze.

Blue’s eyebrows furrow a little. “Weird?” she says, a little confused. “Because we’re all friends? If that was an issue for me then I’m pretty sure i’d be the world’s biggest hypocrite,” she replies, nodding her head towards Henry and Gansey who are still engrossed together, their heads so close they’re touching as they pore over the phone together. 

Ronan shrugs, wrapping his arm around Adam so the movement doesn’t jostle his position. “Well … not just friends but … you know, _guys,_” he says like it's something he’s thought a lot about to Blue’s surprise.

“I mean … you probably already knew I was gay but I thought you might not like that ...Parrish used to date you. Or whatever,” he finished, biting out the last part, rolling his eyes a little like the whole conversation is distasteful to him, covering up the anxious set of his jaw and the underlying tension in his voice.

“Oh,” Blue says, a little surprised. Was this why neither of them had announced their relationship to the group? Had they been waiting for her to say something so they’d know she was accepting? 

“It’s really okay,” she eventually gets out, and it's not exactly what she wanted to say and it's not very eloquent but it's the best she can do half asleep and caught off guard. “I … I see how good you are for each other. Two halves of a whole. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before, really,” she finishes with a shrug. 

“He’s always been yours, Ronan. Your soulmate, not mine,” she says with a wry glance at Gansey. “And even if he took a little longer to realise it than you did I wouldn’t doubt that he knows you’re his too”

Ronan lets out a shuddering breath, his eyes wide and sparkling like he’s being told a fairytale secret, like he can’t quite believe someone on the outside looking in is confirming his dreams as reality. He nods once, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he swallows hard but doesn’t say anything. He just gives Blue a small smile, the most genuine she’s ever seen from Ronan Lynch and she smiles back in return, her heart full and fluttering as she snuggles back down into her blanket on the couch.

She watches quietly as Ronan looks down at Adam and he tucks the small smile on his face shyly into Adam’s messy hair in a way that belies all his feelings. Clear as day Blue can see not just a closeness, not just flirting, not just the fumblings of a casual relationship, but _real love_ in Ronan’s face. The way his hand tightens slightly around Adam when he shuffles in his sleep, the flick of his thumb back and forth in such a tender and soothing motion over Adam’s upper arm, the tiny press of his lips, a secret kiss onto the crown of Adam’s head, hidden beneath his curls, like he can’t resist this small moment of affection, like he’s a magnet and Adam’s the pole drawing him closer and closer towards him, like they’re two opposites destined to be together by a force more powerful than all of them and suddenly Blue has no doubt in her mind at all at what she’s witnessing. 

She smiles again as she quietly looks away, not wanting them to catch her looking, and as she does so she realises she doesn’t know how she can have ever thought that Ronan Lynch and Adam Parrish were anything other than hopelessly, madly, truly, deeply in love.

  
  



End file.
